Amongst the various global initiatives debated to counter the violent extremist ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), one example from Southeast Asia – the Global Movement of Moderates – is worth closer scrutiny. Moderation, however, is not just for Muslims.

International concernt at the rapidly metastasising global threat of the brutal Al Qaeda “mutation” known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has generated concerted discussions on effective strategies to counter its highly virulent ideology that has been widely disseminated through the Internet.

High-level summits on countering violent extremism (CVE) were held in Washington and in Sydney in the first half of this year, while more recently British Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled the United Kingdom’s new multi-faceted CVE strategy as well. In Southeast Asia, one potentially powerful idea – moderation – has been promoted as a means of neutralising the extremist appeal of ISIS.

… Kumar Ramakrishna is Associate Professor and Head, Policy Studies in the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.